


Hour by Hour

by AurigaCapella



Series: Recovery [3]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-06 08:17:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12813423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AurigaCapella/pseuds/AurigaCapella
Summary: Steven is having a rough day, but Amethyst has been there before and knows how to help.





	Hour by Hour

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Crooked_Mantis and CoreyWW once again for reading!

Amethyst wandered into the living room. With Pearl and Garnet gone on a mission, there wasn’t much to do except wait for Steven to wake up. She pulled out the latest _Pretty Hairstylist_ and flopped down on the couch to read.

After the titular Pretty Hairstylist finally found the kidnapped manicurist, Amethyst looked up and checked the time. It was noon already, and Steven still wasn’t up. He’d missed his usual morning cartoons and had even skipped breakfast. She set her book down and ascended the stairs.

Steven lay huddled up in bed, his head sandwiched between two pillows. Amethyst sat down next to him and tugged his ear.

“Hey Steven! Stay up late or something?”

He turned away from her. “Go away, Amethyst.”

Ordinarily he would have sprung out of bed and started babbling on about how he had stayed up late because _The Unfamiliar Familiar_ had gotten so good he couldn’t put it down or because he’d been at some Beach City event. At the very least he would have tried to play at fighting her back until they’d wrestled their way downstairs. He’d never asked her to leave before.

“Steven… are you ok?”

“I’m fine. I just want to stay in bed, ok?”

Maybe he just needed a good reason to get up. “You know, Garnet and Pearl are gone for the day. It’s just us. Are you sure you don’t wanna have a donut eating competition or throw water balloons off the hill and see if we can nail anyone?”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” he said flatly.

He sure sounded a lot like… _oh_. “Ok man. Tell you what, you rest for another hour, then we can talk some more.”

Steven didn’t respond, he just closed his eyes.

Amethyst walked downstairs and into the kitchen. Seeing Steven uninterested in their usual fun stung deeply. They were partners in crime, and she could count on his enthusiasm and positivity even when her own reserves for those emotions were running low. Now he was the quartz who couldn’t seem to find anything worth getting out of bed for. And he didn’t have the advantage of a Steven Universe to help him out of this.

But he did have her. She’d been down in this hole before and she could help him find what he needed to get out.

She rooted through the kitchen for supplies.

\--

An hour after she’d first tried to wake Steven, Amethyst again climbed the stairs and sat beside him.

“Breakfast, dude.” She balanced a plate on the bedside table. “You’ve got toast with peanut butter, a glass of milk, some strawberries... oh, and a leftover taco ‘cause I wasn’t sure if you’d want breakfast or lunch.”

“Thanks,” Steven mumbled. He didn’t move.

Amethyst took a deep breath and practiced her casual voice in her head. The last thing she wanted was to drive him down deeper by seeming overbearing. She bit into one of the strawberries, then spoke.

“These strawberries are pretty good dude, get in on this before I cover them in candlewax and go to town on ‘em.”

“You go ahead, I’m fine,” said Steven.

“I’m sure you are,” lied Amethyst. “I just wanted to make sure you knew that, you know, breakfast can come at any time of the day. Even-” she checked his alarm clock “-1:15 in the afternoon!”

“Got it.”

Playing it cool wasn’t working. “Uh, Steven? I know you aren’t feeling great today. And that’s… it’s ok. I’ve felt like that before, too.”

Steven sighed. “I don’t _feel_ like anything.”

“And that’s just it. Sometimes you’re just empty, you know? We don’t have to talk about it, or anything. But if you want to, I’m here.”

“Right.”

“Right,” Amethyst echoed. “And I’m gonna give you some space, ‘cause I know that’s part of what I needed. But I’m still gonna check on you every hour because you know me, gotta make sure you’re not secretly hanging out with someone else when it’s supposed to be our day together.”

\--

Another hour passed and Amethyst once again traveled up the stairs and stood next to Steven’s bed. She noticed half a piece of peanut butter toast and two strawberries were missing, but the milk sat untouched.

“Peanut butter without anything to wash it down can’t feel great,” she said. “Wanna come downstairs and have some water?”

Steven shrugged.

“And you probably need to use the bathroom too.”

“Yeah,” said Steven. “Kinda.”

“‘K. I’ll be downstairs reading.”

She walked downstairs, filled a glass with water, and set it on the countertop. A few moments later Steven’s heavy footsteps alerted her that he was on the move. She peeked over the top of her book.

Steven picked up the glass of water and held it for a moment. Amethyst never thought she’d watch something so mundane with so much concentration, but here she was absolutely fixated on Steven completing this ordinary task. The moment he brought the glass to his lips she felt something burst inside of her. She wanted to cheer for him like he’d just defeated a corrupted Gem.

Instead, she looked through her stack of books and magazines and selected a few she thought he might like. As she placed the small stack on the coffee table, she noticed Steven had left the kitchen for the bathroom.

Amethyst had spent the entire day wishing Steven would just come downstairs, but now that he had she was grateful that the closure of the bathroom door offered her a moment to collect herself. She swallowed until the tightness in her throat released. It hurt almost as much from this side as it did when she had been in Steven’s place. Or maybe it hurt more, since back then it hadn’t felt like much of anything.

But Steven was never indifferent like this. Even since coming home he’d been as enthusiastic as ever... but more apologetic. Amethyst wondered if he was pretending to feel normal to put them all at ease; it wouldn’t be the first time he had hidden something like that.

She rose, refilled his water glass, and sat back down.

The bathroom door creaked open and Steven shuffled into the kitchen. He picked up the glass and stood awkwardly for a moment, looking toward her.

Amethyst patted the couch cushion next to her. “Hey, why don’t we hang out down here?”

Steven shrugged, then sank down next to her. He took a small sip of water.

Amethyst smiled at him. “So, any idea what you’d like to do today?”

“Rest,” said Steven.

“Ok, let’s rest. What about the rest of the week, have you got any plans?”

“Vidalia on Wednesday,” he muttered. “Training with Connie on Saturday.”

‘How’s it going with Vidalia?”

“Fine… good, sometimes. She told me I might have days like this.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. She said not every day. And it isn’t every day. But since it’s just us here it was kinda like, wow, I don’t have to pretend right now, you know? Maybe that sounds stupid.”

He still trusted her. Amethyst closed her eyes a moment to hide the tears beginning to form. “No, Steven… I get it. It’s not stupid at all.”

“It’s not?”

“Nope. So let’s rest today, just us. You wanna read one of these books?” Amethyst gestured to the stack she’d placed on the coffee table.

Steven shook his head. “I’m feeling kinda foggy.”

Amethyst had an idea. She pulled out _Pretty Hairstylist Volume 1_ and held it up. “How about I read to you instead? I know we haven’t done that since you were a tiny dude, but you’re never too old for a little story time, right?”

Steven’s mouth curved up just slightly at the edge. “Yeah, that actually sounds kinda nice.” He took a sip of water and set the glass on the coffee table. “Can I- can I lay in your lap like when I was little?”

“Umm, I’d be offended if you didn’t!”

Steven laid his head in her lap and tucked his knees to his chest. Amethyst reached down, tousled his hair, and opened the book.

“The Intergalactic School of Cosmic Cosmetology wouldn't admit just any hairstylist…”

 


End file.
